Stamina

What is a good way to build stamina? It seems I am sometimes getting winded even though I'm getting stronger. I noticed it today after I went grocery shopping and lugged it all up three flights of stairs to my apartment.

wow just read your profile. Your bodyfat % is very high for someone so thin also your waist sounds a bit too big for your frame. Good thing your on the program. I'm sure you can add muscle while lowering your b/f%. Remember it's 90% about your diet!!

You answered your own question: stairs. Google up on HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training). It's vastly more effective than endless hours of cardio, increases you cardiac threshold (stamina), and doesn't cause muscle mass compromise at the rate of those other activities.

Remember, stairs require as much as 7 times more energy than walking horizontally.

At 47, I could hold my heart rate at 160 for 20 min. That's exceptional by almost any review. If you educate yourself on this, you can, too.

When I got my BF% taken I was told I was in accepted range for my range. I did think it was high though. I used to have a fast metabolism but I think it has finally slowed. Since I measured my own self I may not have measured my waist well enough. Had looked online to see how to do it. Is it the same as measuring for pants?

The amount of cardio I do is the amount it is listed on the workout program I am doing. So about 30 minutes 2 or 3 times a week. I tend to use the hike and bike trail near my place in addition or for it. That is usually 45 minutes to an hour occasionally longer. Can't say I enjoy jogging but I do enjoy swimming.

Possibly I am consuming more calories than I am exerting. I hate doing it but guess I'll have to start keeping track.

Depends on your current level of conditioning. It says nothing in your profile about cardio training, and that's what's going to help you.

An active type yoga class (vinyasa, ashtanga, Bikram etc), circuit training, running, and spin classes. The idea of building stamina is to put your body in a consistently active that's mildly-moderately uncomfortable, but sustainable. Comfortably hard is another way of putting it.

MikemikeMike saidAre you sure your waist is a 34??? I am 5'11 175 30waist 11-12% bodyfat. If I want abs I have to get it below 10- closer to7-8%, but then I lose my butt, so I like the way I look as is.

My 32 inch waist jeans have been very tight lately but my 33 inch waist jeans are pretty loose so I don't know. The tape measure was 34 when I used it.

Bodyfat and cardio have nothing to do with each other. Maybe I misread the other answers, but they have absolutely nothing to do with each other. Nothing. Just look at distance swimmers, like those that swim the English Channel, for example. They have 30% body fat, but amazing cardio. Two completely different things. Or bodybuilders, with 3% bodyfat on competition day, but almost on the verge of exhaustion.

growingbig, it's highly unlikely that you are eating more calories than you are burning given your very low body weight. More likely, even from this distance, is that you're causing the famine response, from UNDEREATING. Ever see a starving kid? Note the belly fat and distention? I don't know the methodology of your fat test, but, if they used a tape, or galvanometer, there can be a huge margin of error. For someone over 25 years of age, fat percentages below 25% or so are considered no-obese. I've been in contest shape and had a galvanometer test show me at 35%. They're very unreliable, especially in folks who are "drier." Less than 21% is considered desirable for guys your age. Less than 18% for younger folks. 17% seems a bit high, if you look like the pictures posted.

Almost certainly, given your activity level, and low weight, the love handles are resultant of training your body how to become a fat-storing machine.

Remember, you can't lose fat if you're not eating. Your body will preserve that fat if you're mal-nourished for the impending famine.

That's why fat folks fail so often. They don't get the mechanisms at work.